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His Imperial Majesty Emperor Adam I, known as Adam James Belcher outside of micronationalism, is the first and to date only Emperor of the Empire of Adammia. He is the Founder of the nation, having established it on 13 April 2013. He has been de facto Emperor since that date and de jure been so since 19 April 2013. Since then he has acquired a number of additional positions such as being Adammia's Lord Chancellor and the Empire's Minister of Foreign Affairs, along with leading numerous government agencies and companies, and being the President of the Adammic Liberal Party. He is generally responsible for the majority of the Empire's administration. He is also a former Deputy First Minister of Mercia.

Non-micronational life

Adam's political chart.

Adam Belcher was born on 19 February 1998 to Kevin Belcher and Jayne Belcher, in West Yorkshire, United Kingdom. He started school in 2002, began high school in 2009 and completed high school in 2014. He attended college from 2014-2016 where he achieved A-Levels in Maths, Further Maths and Computing, and began studying Computer Science and Software Engineering at the University of Birmingham in September 2016. Ever since his early childhood, Adam has been a keen PC gamer. He has strong interests in science and history. He has been a regular user of the Internet since 2011, with him operating a gaming YouTube channel (now the Adammic media company AB Animation Ltd.) from January 2012. Through the video game Minecraft, he became part of a gaming community which now gathers three times per year at the Insomnia Gaming Festival. He and the rest of this group now focus on other games, mainly Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

Adam began programming in Java as a hobby in August 2012, and decided to persue software development as his career path following a conversation with Damian Parker, who later became High Lord Overseer of Creatuxia, in March 2013. Adam has developed a text-based game, The Lion Game, and is working on another title, Interstellar Voyage, under the name of his Adammic software company Top Hat Software.

Adam is an Atheist and identifies as "mostly heterosexual". His political views are best described as social liberal and he strongly supports secularism. Following the 2015 General Election, he became a member of the Liberal Democrat British political party. He then stood for election to Wakefield Metropolitan District Council in the Crofton, Ryhill and Walton ward in the 2016 local elections, winning 252 votes (6.2%). In March 2017, he was elected as Internal Campaigns Officer for the University of Birmingham Liberal Democrats society, and later became its Secretary in October 2017. With a personality type of INTJ, Adam is very introverted. He is known amongst his close friends as an eccentric, not just because of his involvement in micronationalism but also because of his love for his top hat and his often unusual choice of vocabulary.

Empire of Adammia

Foundation

On 12 April 2013, while researching for history homework, Adam discovered micronationalism via Wikipedia. The exact sequence of events leading up to the creation of Adammia are unclear, but it is known that by the evening of 13 April, Adam's bedroom was claimed independent from the United Kingdom, with the first paper Adammic flag hanging on the wall. From this point forward he was the de facto Emperor of Adammia. On 15 April, Adam wrote the first draft of the Supreme Directive, and the final version was 'ratified' by Sir Alex of Poole, the only other citizen at that time, on the 19th. From this point onwards, Adam was de jure the Emperor of Adammia, although he never had a formal coronation.

Absolute Monarch

For the first two months of his reign, Emperor Adam ruled as an absolute monarch. During this period, he expanded the Empire massively from its early state, annexing Tytannia, Sapientia and Maternia in April 2013 as well as expanding the Adammic Imperial Province from the original bedroom to the entire property. He founded the Military, the Treasury, and designed many of Adammia's official symbols. In May, he led the Military during its first engagement at the Skirmish of Tytannia, as well as entering Adammia into the Grand Unified Micronational. He appointed himself Archduke of West Adammia around this time. In June, his alliance with the Ordo Vladius led to a large population boost, and he also created the state media.

Constitutional Monarch

Towards the end of June 2013, Emperor Adam wrote a brand new Supreme Directive, which he presented on state TV on 23 June in a press conference. Under the laws of the existing Supreme Directive, a new fundamental law would require the approval of the people, so Adam organised Adammia's first public referendum on 30 June. The public unanimously proclaimed this new Supreme Directive and as a result he sacrificed his status of an absolute monarch. Now an executive constitutional Monarch, his Decrees were now subject to the scrutinity of the Ruling Council.

Emperor Adam I's personal coat of arms

However, this did not slow down his micronational career. He won the local election to become Minister (now Councilor) of the Adammic Imperial Province (now Primoria), started the ID card project, and signed Adammia's first treaty with Burnham in July. He has written the vast majority of Acts passed by the Ruling Council. In August he created the LIST Party, annexed Creatuxia, Adammia's first colony, and oversaw the election of Prime MinisterJayne Belcher. In September he became the Lord Chancellor of State. He was responsible for an Imperial Decree recognising dozens of other nations, and he played a major part in setting up the Ministry of Finance's Contributions scheme. In October, his Sixteenth Decree overhauled many of his previous Decrees, making changes to the titles and styles system, changing the national sport, and privatising his YouTube channel, which up until that point had been state owned.

Following the merge of Tytannia and Sapientia on 24 November 2013, Adam used his power as Archduke of West Adammia to replace Emperor Father Kevin with Crown Prince Daniel as the Duke of the Adammic Imperial Province, as the Crown Prince had just lost his position as Duke of Tytannia and Adam was keen to keep his brother as a member of the Ruling Council. This meant that the Emperor Father could no longer be Minister of Defence, and Adam volunteered to replace him. Shortly after, Prime Minister Emperor Mother Jayne appointed him Adammia's second Minister of Defence.

In 2014, the creation of numerous government agencies and companies saw Adam taking on dozens of small roles, directing many of the agencies and having a brief tenure as a temporary Minister of Infrastructure until being replaced with Sir Paul McKenna. Today, he performs most of the Empire's administration work as a general civil servant and agency director, handling citizenship records as Minister of Citizenship, leading the Military, as well as continuing to lead the general direction of the Empire and the Ruling Council as Emperor, representing the colonies as Delegate of the Colonies and the interests of his party, now known as the Liberal Party. On 15 July 2014, the citizens of the micronation DEONQED made Adam their new Emperor following a revolution. Adam merged this new gain with the rest of Adammia on 22 July 2014, creating Borealia, and promptly assumed the title of Emperor of Borealia. He lost the office of Councilor of Primoria to Crown Prince Daniel following the 26 July 2014 Local Elections.

In August 2016, Adam was forced to abdicate the throne of Borealia following the Borealian Independence Referendum, and was succeeded by Tom Martin. After Sir Paul McKenna won the 2016 National Election, Adam was replaced as Minister of Defence and Minister of Citizenship, but re-gained the position of Minister of Infrastructure.

Mercia

Adam has been a citizen of Mercia since it was known as Burnham in 2013. Following the nation's transition into Mercia, he was granted the noble title of Count of Penmine and Spildcastle in March 2015. One year later, following encouragement from HL Richard I, he and Earl Kit McCarthy founded the Social Democratic Party of Mercia, with Adam as leader and McCarthy as administrative president. Following a general election in May 2016, the SDP won two seats in the Mercian Parliament House, with Adam becoming an MP for Kernollond. The SDP then entered a coalition government, which resulted in Adam becoming Deputy First Minister of Mercia. However, when Kit McCarthy left the MicroWiki community in July 2016, the SDP was forced to dissolve. Despite originally stating that he would continue to support the coalition government, a series of by-elections left his coalition partners with a majority without him. Deciding that he was no longer needed, he resigned as Deputy First Minister just before a cabinet reshuffle on 13 August 2016, and subsequently stood down as an MP at the September general election.

Grand Unified Micronational

In his capacity as Monarch and as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Adam has so far been Adammia's only consistent delegate to the Grand Unified Micronational. He gained significant influence at the end of the term of Quentin I of Wyvern as Chair in December 2013, when the organisation's elections were completely forgotten about until he reminded the other delegates. The action prompted the new Chair, Ciprian of Juclandia, to nominate him as Vice-Chair on 15 December 2013. During his term as Vice-Chair of the Grand Unified Micronational, Adam chaired one Quorum in Ciprian's absence, on 16 February 2014. During the same term, Adam was appointed the last ever secretary of the GUM Advancement Council, with the neglected body being finally disbanded at the end of the term on 13 March 2014.

Adam failed to notice the opening of nominations for the next term, meaning he was not able to run for the new position of GUM Science and Research Secretary like he intended. Instead, John Gordon took the position. However, Gordon was removed from the office for inactivity, to be replaced by Adam following a motion of Quorum on 27 April 2014. Due to exams, Adam was unable to do little more in his half-term other than offer up several suggestions for projects, none of which had time to be put into practice. This, combined with his lack of an official agenda and his opponent Karl Friedrich being more experienced, meant that Adam lost the June 2014 election for Science Secretary by a massive landslide.

During the Summer 2014 term, Adam once again rose to prominence as a kind of personal assistant to the incumbent Chair Joseph Kennedy. In August 2014, a motion to recognise this role with an official office failed to pass through Quorum, with numerous delegates agreeing that Adam was only doing the Chair's job. This was one of the main reasons behind Adam's decision to accept his nomination by Richard Hytholoday to run in the September 2014 elections for the office of Chair. Adam ran against Kennedy, who was seeking re-election, and won by 7 votes to 5. Adam thus became Chair of the Grand Unified Micronational on 13 September 2014, and served a term until December 2014. Notably, he is the first and only Chair to date belonging to a centrist political party (though a number of independent moderates have also filled the position throughout history).

Adam served no role in the term of Taeglan I Nihilus immediately following his own, but he returned to contest the Chairmanship in the March 2015 elections against James I, running on a platform of improving the GUM's image in a time of plummeting activity. However, this rapidly fell apart when the March elections were declared invalid due to turnout being too low. After winning a second election, Adam began a second term as Chair on 1 April 2015, but had now changed tack and followed the advice of many senior members of the MicroWiki community in dissolving the GUM as an organisation. He oversaw the GUM's transition into a formal chatroom on 14 June 2015, and remained Chairman until Emperor Jonathan I took office on 30 July 2015.

When the GUM was revived in 2016, Adam took a semi-active role. In July 2016, he was appointed Statistics Secretary of the GUM.

Boxall descent

It is considered very likely that Adam is the 11th cousin once removed of Jonathan I, Emperor of Austenasia, with their common ancestor being Richard Boxall, born in 1586. However, one link in the Boxall ancestry on Adam's side has yet to be proved conclusively.

Richard Boxall (b. 1560)

Richard Boxall (b. 1586)

Richard Boxall (b. 1612)

Thomas Boxall (b. 1650)

Thomas Boxall (b. 1676)

Thomas Boxall (b. 1700) Not conclusively proven to be the son of Thos. Boxall b. 1676

Style

Adam's current full style:

His Imperial Majesty Emperor Adam I of Adammia, Imperator Adammiae I, Founder of Adammia, Archduke of South Adammia, Grand Marshal of the Military of Adammia, Field Marshal of the Adammic Army, Grand Admiral of the Adammic Navy, Air Chief Marshal of the Adammic Air Force, Lord Chancellor of the State of Adammia, Sovereign of the Order of Adammia, Count of Penmine and Spildcastle, Member of the Most Excellent Order of the Wildebeest, Member of the Austenasian Order